Having referred to municipal finances in previous articles – which is an important issue to all of us living in a municipal area – it is essential that the public have a better understanding of the mechanics of municipal financial processes and responsibilities.
A comforting reality for us as ratepayers is the fact that municipal finances are strictly controlled by legislation.
Compliance is closely monitored by both national and provincial governments.
But in spite of this, criminal elements still manage to illegally obtain monies from municipalities.
This must be eradicated as a matter of urgency and the public must play its part in achieving this by reporting any irregular expenditure to the authorities.
The legislation is explicit as to how irregular and unauthorised expenditure should be dealt with.
A control system is only as good as the integrity and honesty of the officials in charge of it, and that is why so much emphasis was placed in an earlier article on the quality and integrity of both councillors and officials.
As long as we have officials employed in municipalities who are only interested in serving their own interests – and even that of a specific political party – municipalities will have difficulty in surviving the challenges they face and we as residents will have to pay for it.
To illustrate the scope of the control mechanisms in municipalities, provision is made for the appointment by the municipal council of an audit committee that should monitor the municipality’s financial controls and performances.
In some municipalities this responsibility has been split into a financial audit committee and a performance audit committee.
These committees are constituted of financial and municipal performance experts who are completely independent from the municipality.
Appointment of members of the audit committee should not be politically motivated, but should be focused on people who can make a contribution towards better functioning municipalities.
The fact that there is a deterioration in the number of municipalities obtaining clean audit reports from the Auditor-General, is an indication of a lack of proper control and management by often unqualified officials.
The salary structures of municipalities are very attractive and properly qualified staff can be recruited if done without party political interference.
There should be a complete ban on the re-appointment of municipal officials who have a record of mismanagement or proven corruption in any municipality where they were previously employed.
At the same time, officials who comply with legislation and who are disliked by councillors and suspended by councils, should be protected.
Thousands of rands are spent on salaries of suspended officials pending disciplinary hearings.
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